Inkjet Printer

The most popular printer for home computer users that prints by spraying streams of quick-drying ink on paper. The ink is stored in disposable ink cartridges, and often a separate cartridge is used for each of the major colors. These colors are usually CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). The picture is an example of a computer inkjet printer.

Although inkjet printers themselves are often relatively inexpensive, the ink cartridges used in the printers can increase the overall cost of the printer.

Cartridge

A cartridge is an object housed in a protective shell. For example, an ink cartridge, as shown in the picture, may be installed in an inkjet printer to provide black or colored ink for printing.

ROM cartridge

A ROM cartridge is a read-only memory chip housed in a plastic casing, with an opening at one end exposing the chip interface. The cartridge can be inserted into a computing device, such as a video game console, that loads software or data from the chip.

Ink cartridge

An ink cartridge is a disposable container that contains liquid ink for an inkjet printer. An inkjet printer may only have one ink cartridge that contains only black or each of the primary colors, including black.

In the image, you can see four ink cartridges. Each of these cartridges contain a certain. In this example, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). With an inkjet printer, the cartridges release ink from one or more of the cartridges to create a hard copy.

Ink cartridge costs

Inkjet cartridges are notoriously expensive. When considering the cost of an inkjet printer, also consider the cost of the ink. Some printer manufacturers may sell a printer at a loss because they know they can make up the losses from selling you their proprietary ink.

CMYK

Short for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key, CMYK is the four-color model used for printing standard colors. The image is an example of colors created when variations of the original three are mixed.